Either Way, I'll Break Your Heart
by NephilimEQ
Summary: Severus Snape knows he'll hurt her...the only question is, when will it be?


**A.N. - This is inspired by the song "Either Way I'll Break Your Heart Someday" by Augustana. When I heard the song I immediately thought of the fact that I would bet anything that Severus Snape would think that way if he ended up in a relationship with Hermione. He would be so afraid of hurting her…well, read the story for the rest!**

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><p><strong><span>Either Way, I'll Break Your Heart Someday<span>**

He stood in the doorway to their bedroom, staring down at the brown curls that lay strewn across the pillow. Severus Snape had no idea what he had done to deserve such an amazing woman as Hermione Granger. She complemented him in every way that he needed. She had unwavering patience and an inexhaustible amount of goodwill when it came to him.

But in the end, he knew it would turn out badly.

He was not one to fall in love easily, and now that he'd given her his heart and she had given him his, he knew that he would bungle it up into a mess one of these days.

_All I have are the way things go / I don't know / I just don't know / Make up some simple lies / and compromise / how I live_

She held him so easily in her hands, and it amazed him to no end. She could handle his worst tempers and his deepest depressions, as well as bring him out of his shell. When they made love he found himself pouring every part of his soul into her, and it scared him as to how easily it happened each and every time.

He loved her with all of his soul, but problems were bound to surface, and eventually he would do or say something that could not be forgiven.

She was as close to perfect as a woman could come in his eyes…and he was as far from perfect as he knew a man could be. Eventually, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it, he knew that he would hurt her and that she would not be able to forgive him. He would no longer be able to taste her sweet lips, and that was something he wasn't sure that he could live with.

_Because either way I'll break your heart someday / But leaving you is the last thing on my mind / So when I go / baby kiss real slow so I don't forget to make my way back home / When I go_

This was why he was up at three in morning, staring down at her sleeping in their bed.

She deserved so much better than him, and though he loathed the thought of her being with another man, it was better than her staying with him out of pity or out of some twisted sense of loyalty. He couldn't live like that.

But, oh, how he would miss her when she was gone. He would miss every particle of her being, and then some. He would miss the way she would give him her fierce hugs and searching kisses in the morning before he left to go teach, and how her perfume would linger on his clothes for the rest of the day and the taste of her strawberry lip gloss on his lips, reminding him of her every single second that he was away from her.

_Sail away on a wayward ship / with candy lips in my grip / cheap perfume / Oh it never lies / and it can't surprise any good advice  
><em>

He sent a silent spell to the covers, warming them slightly as she unconsciously pulled them up her body in her sleep. She was his saving grace, his angel. She had pulled him out of his deep depression immediately following the war, and had truly saved him.

He didn't want to leave her…and he hoped that he would never have to. But he had too many demons and he had a sinking feeling that they would find their way into the one good thing in his life and destroy it. He wasn't sure if he could live with that.

Of course, he knew by now that he couldn't live without her, hence he was having even more problems.

What would he do with himself when she was gone from his life?_  
><em>

'_Cause either way I'll break your heart someday / But leaving you is the last thing on my mind / So when I go / baby kiss real slow so I don't forget to make my way back home / When I go_

He knew he didn't want to leave her, and that he never wanted to see her unhappy, but… He thought back to what both Ron and Harry had told him only a couple of days before. That she needed someone her own age; that it would be better if he left her.

And now it was all that he could think about. Leaving her.

He shouldn't think about. He shouldn't even let the thought enter his mind, but he was.

He loved her. He was desperately in love with her and they couldn't even understand that. It was as if they were completely blind to the fact that he _had_ those kinds of emotions.

_Well I'll miss you in the winter / Your friends say I should listen / Can't you see I've loved you all along _

He continued to watch her sleep. Continued to watch her as she peacefully slumbered, blissfully unaware of the internal battle that he was waging with himself. He didn't know which side was winning at that point, but he did know that all he wanted was for it to end.

However, the nagging feeling at the back of his mind simply would not disappear.

Harry and Ron had never really liked him, so they could be setting him up for the worst pain in his life...but they were at least partially right. He _was_ too old for her. But he did _not_ want to leave her…he loved her too damn much.

He watched as she shifted under the covers and her hand reached out to the side, as though searching for something.

He heard her mutter something in her sleep.

"Sev'rus…"

His heart clenched. She was reaching for him.

He stared at her, trying to figure it out. How would she react if she woke up in the morning and he wasn't there? Would she be able to take it, or would it break her heart? If he waited until she woke and then told her that he was leaving, he was certain that she would be able to talk him out of it.

That woman had more persuasive power than Albus Dumbledore ever did…mainly because of the fact that he was helplessly in love with her.

_'Cause either way I'll break your heart someday / But leaving you is the last thing on my mind / So when I go / baby kiss real slow so I don't forget to make my way back home / When I go _

Her hand stretched across the covers, and he heard her repeat his name a second time, and he found himself walking across the floor towards the bed, and before he even understood what he was doing, he was slipping back under the sheets and pulling her into his side.

Her arm gripped him tightly, and he ran a gentle hand across her face.

She wasn't a stunning beauty, but she was perfect to him. She was everything that he wanted and didn't deserve.

Severus knew that with his disposition, eventually he would do something to hurt her. It wouldn't be intentional, but it would eventually happen, whether or not he wanted it to. He would break her heart, that was for sure…

But he hoped that he would have enough courage to be the one to mend it as well.

With that thought, he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her ever closer to him, a silent determination filling his thoughts.

Yes…he would be the one to mend it as well.

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><p><strong>THE END<strong>

**(P.S. - I hope you all enjoyed it!)**


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